The current St Batholomew’s church in Mount Lane off Westgate is not the first church to have appeared on this site. The suburbs extra muros of St Pancras to the east and of St Sepulchre to the west date back to Roman times, both housing 3rd century cemeteries within their Read more…
After 105 years absence, it was an emotional moment to see a brewery dray enter the Brewery Field this Sunday as two magnificent shire horses, Pride and Griffin, were driven in by John Medhurst, their driver for the past 28 years. The Fullers Horse and Dray was the star attraction Read more…
By an amazing coincidence, the very week that the dray horses came back to the Brewery Field, if only for an afternoon, a resident was clearing the vegetation back in her garden when she discovered several items hanging on the wall. The first one was this strange item: If you Read more…
Don’t miss the Brewery Field Community Open Day on Sunday 20th August, 12-4pm. From 1751 to 1954 the Field was on the site of the Westgate Brewery, which produced beer for inns and pubs across Sussex. In 1811 the Brewery was rebuilt, to become the largest in Chichester, and in Read more…
This article first appeared on 30 July 2016 as part of an occasional series of historical items that relate to Westgate and have been somehow Hidden from History. We are grateful to Westgate resident Rachel Moriarty for a host of new material which has resulted in this much expanded version (May 2017). Read more…
Most residents are familiar with our winterbourne, the River Lavant. Winterbourne because it is a seasonal stream that comes down from the Downs, filtered out of the chalk after the Winter rains. Most of us are familiar with its current course on the West side: emerging from the City from Read more…
The History This field was part of the Westgate Brewery which produced beer for many inns and pubs across Sussex and East Hampshire from 1751 until it closed in 1954. In 1827 it was taken over by the Henty family who went into partnership with George Constable in 1921. The Read more…
As many residents will know, Westgate, along with St Pancras, was part of the Parliamentary encampment during the brief siege of Chichester by Colonel William Waller at Christmastide in December 1642, the first year of the Civil War. Christmas 2022 will mark the 380th anniversary of this event. A Divided Read more…
Article originally researched and compiled by Paula Chatfield of Parklands RA for her excellent Easter Trail series and published here by permission. Westfield House is one of our older local buildings, built in the 1700s and extended in the early 1800s. The first Ordnance Survey map (1813) shows it clearly Read more…
The eastern end of Westgate seems such a perfect Georgian enclave, yet who would have thought standing in the street today, that Mount Lane has contained iconic 20th century buildings and still has an interior by Eric Gill’s brother? Powell & Moya architects The year 2014 saw the Chichester Festival Read more…